France and the European Union will decide this week on their military presence in Mali.
The process is underway and should lead to a series of decisions by the end of this week concerning the French and European commitment in Mali. On Monday, a videoconference meeting of the EU Foreign Ministers will be held to discuss the future of the European military force Takuba. This first meeting should act on the almost probable withdrawal of French and European troops from Mali
Will the former colonial power, several thousand soldiers of which have been engaged since 2013 against jihadist groups active on Malian territory and in neighboring countries, finally withdraw its troops from the region?
The G5 Sahel in Paris
“The situation cannot remain as it is,” said French government spokesman Gabriel Attal on Tuesday, February 1, giving the impression that France is considering all options, including a withdrawal of its troops from Mali.
As such, Emmanuel Macron invited the Heads of State of the G5 Sahel to a meeting on Wednesday, February 16, notably Niger’s President Mohamed Bazoum, Chad’s Mahamat Idriss Deby and Mauritaniaes Mohamed Ould Ghazouani; a meeting to which the French president did not invite the transitional authorities of Burkina Faso and Mali.
The President of the African Union Macky Sall and the current President of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana will be part as the European Council, Charles Michel, and the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell.
At the end of this meeting, Paris and its European Union partners will announce their decisions on Mali. The reorganization of the mechanism in other neighboring Sahelian countries and its extension to the countries of the Gulf of Guinea are also under consideration.
Citing national sovereignty, the Malian transitional authorities intend to remain in power for several years, the time it takes to “rebuild the foundations of the state and restructure the armed and security forces” of a country plagued since 2012 by a serious security crisis linked to the presence of several jihadist groups over a large part of the Malian territory, particularly in the North and the Center.
An inflexible junta
During the first months after the army took power in Bamako, Paris was conciliatory towards the Malian putschists. But relations between the two parties suddenly deteriorated when, in May, the colonels, who had meanwhile installed a President and a Prime Minister at the head of a transitional government, decided to dismiss both men and entrust the Presidency to the head of the junta, Colonel Assimi Goita.
The crisis then worsened, and a few days later, France threatened to withdraw its military personnel involved since 2013 in Mali and the Sahel as part of an operation to fight jihadist groups, before finally retracting the threat and announcing a simple reduction in its troops and a restructuring of its military presence.
Citing “an abandonment in mid-air,” the authorities in Bamako threatened to call on other external partners, thus giving credence to what was at the time a simple rumour that they would like to solicit Russia to send elements belonging to the very nefarious Russian private military company Wagner, accused of abuses in Syria, Libya and the Central African Republic. France, which has never hidden its hostility to such a prospect, has not stopped warning Bamako and Moscow against this possibility, which has recently become a reality, according to several Western diplomatic sources in Mali.
The muscular outbursts of officials from both countries, which have become almost daily in recent weeks, have not helped to ease the tension.
Commenting on the decisions taken against the junta by the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), which imposed a series of severe diplomatic and economic sanctions on Mali on January 9, Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga, Minister and government spokesman accused France of seeking to divide the Malians, of “exploiting” sub-regional organizations and of maintaining its “colonial reflexes.” The Malian colonel then summoned Ms. Parly, French Minister of the Army to stop talking.
CD/fss/abj/APA